New Idea: Wake Up With Hup! The HubPages Morning Q & A Hour

As you all have probably realized by now, I have a lot of new ideas that pop into my head ALL the time. Well, my latest idea is a little bit wacky, but I think that it will be great for the HubPages community.

Basically, each morning I get into the office about an hour and a half earlier than the rest of the HubPages crew, which allows me to get some things done and listen to some tunes while I get ready for the rest of the day. Well, since I have this hour all to myself each day, I thought that I mught as well make it an hour where we can all hang out together...so I've created a LIVE vide chat where we can chat, help out other Hubbers and basically just hang out each morning.

Basically what I can do is let all of you chat with me and ask questions while I *try* to answer them while on camera. I say that we give it a shot and have some fun with it - so here goes nothing. Today I'll have to be done in about a half hour or so, but I wanted to kick it off today.

All you need to do to join the video chat is click the link below - chat it up and let me know who you are once you're online and watching!

You should post the time you'll be on in some of the major time zones, so folks can plan their days around it... 'Cause you know they will drop everything to communicate with the Communicator of Awesomeness.

How many members of the Hub community are going to know about this morning hour? Since you introduce it in the Hangout forum, and the people in the Hangout are an elite group, meaning that long-time Hubbers know to come to this thread for the pulse on the community, you are reaching only a small portion of those who could contribute to this site. Is that what you want to encourage, the participation of the longstanding Hubbers, while dismissing the contributions of people new to HP?

I suggest you advertise this Morning Q&A feature by building a Home Page for HubPages.

HP doesn't have a "Home" in its title bar. A Home page would be the perfect place to launch a morning hour and feature HubMobs, the HP blog, the philosophy of the site, the worth of the site, and god knows what else. Why doesn't HupPages have a Home page that outlines its purpose, features its news, highlights its blog, and, well you know what I mean, don't you?

I've always been perplexed by the lack of a Home page. Almost every other site in the universe has one, and HP doesn't. Yet, a home page is what surfers expect.

The purpose of a Home page is to anchor the reader in the foundation of the site and generate interest and involvement. When new folks come to HP, they have no anchor like this.

If you hover your mouse pointer over the Hubpages logo you'll see it takes you back to hubpages.com itself - where you can see your featured hubbers (those who've posted recently) and tag groups and a slice of your hubtivity. It is an invaluable tool!

Indeed it is a good tool. But it is not a *Home* page. Yes, you can see featured Hubbers, featured topics, and three boxed statements that have no links to anywhere.

HP is missing out on an opportunity to engage new visitors. The entry page to HP is a mystery for those who expect a home page. It doesn't give a new viewer a grounding. What does a new visitor know about Featured Hubbers and Featured Topics? New visitors don't know what a Hub or a Hubber is.

You folks should definitely get in on these chats. Not only is Ryan a snappy dresser but he also has some awesome ideas to brainstorm about, you're really missing out on some great times if you miss these chats.

I had a lot of fun chatting, but it will not let me sign up with a profile. Each time I go to type in the captcha letters these are hard to see, and it keeps telling me I am typing in the wrong letters. Oh well, I will try again later.

Ok. so I am sitting still on the train right now about 20 minutes from San Francisco because an earlier train hit a truck a few minutes ago! How crazy is that? I hope that they're all OK...I mean, how does that really happen?

I'll try to get to the office as soon as I can, but as of now I definitely won't be there by 8pm.

Well, so far there are no trucks in the train tracks, so I should be good to go at 8am, which is about 30 minutes. I'm going to stop and get me some breakfast really fast, but I should still be there on time.

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